Refuge
by Evenstar656
Summary: The beam of light swept across each row of seats until it came across a body, still buckled into its harness, slumped over the bulkhead. She gasped at the sight and nearly dropped the flashlight. The body was unmoving but she clambered over the seats anyways to double check.


Title: Refuge

Author: Evenstar656

Summary: The beam of light swept across each row of seats until it came across a body, still buckled into its harness, slumped over the bulkhead. She gasped at the sight and nearly dropped the flashlight. The body was unmoving but she clambered over the seats anyways to double check.

Spoilers: Star Trek Beyond, general AOS

Disclaimer: The Star Trek franchise and its characters are property of Paramount.

Author's Notes: Just a bit of shameless h/c. As always, although I am a doctor I'm not that kind so I happily practice with my fictional degree.

Warnings: Slight McKirk

 _I apologize for any mistakes, this was un-beta'd_

###

"Stay there behind that tree. Stay hidden until I come back. Do you understand?"

The little boy nodded.

"I'll be right back."

The snow was knee deep and continuing to rise with the blizzard. Progress towards the downed shuttlecraft was slow. The downed trees crossing her path made it even more difficult. Breathless, she finally made it to the heap of twisted metal. It was hard to see into the cabin despite the fact that the entire back part of the shuttle was missing. She found a door on the side but it was half buried in the packed snow. With nothing to clear the snow with, going through the mangled mess of the rear of the shuttle was the only option.

"Hello?" she called out.

There was no reply so she trudged onwards, carefully avoiding sharp pieces of metal jutting out at all angles. The metal of the shuttle was cold. It had been there long enough to cool to the ambient temperature. The sound of fabric tearing interrupted the cold silence of the wreckage. She looked down and saw her pant leg stuck on a jagged edge of the hull. One solid jerk of her knee and the rest of the fabric ripped free.

"Just great."

A low hanging support beam caused her to crawl across the deck on her belly. Fallen snow had blocked the outside windows and the nose of the craft was buried in a large snow bank leaving the cabin dark. Suddenly grateful of a few hard lessons learned from having to fumble around outside in the dark to restart the power generator, she pulled out a small flashlight from her coat pocket. Light from the tiny beam bounced all over the metal surfaces on the inside of the shuttle.

The beam of light swept across each row of seats until it came across a body, still buckled into its harness, and slumped over the bulkhead. She gasped at the sight and nearly dropped the flashlight. The body was unmoving but she clambered over the seats anyways to double check. From the side the body was decidedly human so she placed her fingers under the jaw and pressed firmly. Her frozen fingers couldn't feel any life drumming beneath.

She moved on towards the cockpit. The humanoid in the left seat was most definitely dead with part of a tree that had broken through the window and had impaled the body to the back of the seat. The front of the body was coated in a copious amount of burnt orange fluid, most likely that species' blood. She turned her head to look away and saw that the right seat was empty. There was human blood all over the console but no body that it belonged to.

"Not creepy at all," she muttered to herself and swung the beam of light back and forth.

Carefully, she backed away from the cockpit and turned to walk down the aisle. It wasn't until she grabbed the top of a seat to propel herself up the sloping path did she notice a sticky residue on the material. Slightly grossed out she aimed the light at her hand to see the offending stuff and saw red coating the palm of her hand. It was human blood.

 _Someone made it out alive._

She walked up to the next row of seats and found more blood on the side of the seat. The blood trail continued to the missing rear of the shuttle. The owner of the blood appeared to have used the seats to climb the slope of the aisle. She quickly found a handprint in the mess of twisted metal now that she was looking for breadcrumbs to follow.

It was obvious that the fallen snow had covered up any footprints or blood once she climbed out of the wreckage.

"Hello?" she called out to the empty forest.

Her son popped out from behind the tree he was behind but she waved at him to keep hiding. The trail was completely gone after two circuits around the shuttle for any clues. Whoever left must've been long gone. She decided it was time to give up her search and head back up the hill to her son. She was almost to the top when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It looked like the opening to a small opening in the rocky outcrop.

"Stay there Tasc, I've got one more place to look," she told her son as she headed for the rocks.

It was definitely a cave when she got close enough to make out the details. Her six-chambered heart fluttered when she saw a recently broken tree limb approaching the entrance.

"Hello?" She called out to the cave.

There was no response. She gripped her flashlight tighter and switched it back on. The beam didn't find anything at the mouth of the cave but there was a small stain of dried blood about two meters inside. She flicked the beam up to the back wall of the cave; it looked like it was only five or so meters deep. There was a body curled in on itself pressed into the corner in the back.

"Hello?" She called out again.

The body didn't budge. She looked back outside to see that her son was still hiding behind a tree she crouched forwards. The human man, she assumed it was a man from her angle, was wearing a grey jumpsuit of some kind that was tucked into sturdy black boots.

"Sir?" She nudged an outstretched foot with her flashlight.

She scooted further into the cave and closer to the body. There was no smell meaning whoever hadn't been dead long or the cold had been doings good job at slowing the decomposition. The only way to be sure was to check for a pulse but the body was curled in on itself. She tucked the flashlight under her arm to free up her hands. The human's chin was tucked into its chest and it took a few hard tugs to pull the body away from the cave wall.

She tugged too hard and the human landed with a hard thud on the ground. The man, it was definitely a man, groaned softly at the harsh movement. She hit her head on the cave ceiling jumping back in shock. The man didn't move again so she approached him carefully. The movement had freed his head from his body and the cave walls. The pulse under her fingers was weak and irregular but there was no mistaking the thumping of a still working heart.

After recovering from shock her training kicked in and she straightened the man's broken body. If he had walked out of the shuttle then it was unlikely that his spinal column was injured and if it had been that was the least of the human's problems now.

She turned around to see a boy's small head peering around the mouth of the cave.

"Stay there. I found a human who needs our help. I don't think he can hurt us but we don't know for sure."

The little boy nodded sheepishly.

She looked around for anything she could use but there was nothing else but the two of them in the small cave. Everything she needed to help the man was back at her cabin.

 _And how do I get him out of here?_

There was no physical way that she would be able to carry or drag the human all the way back to her cabin. She was going to have to leave him and return with mechanical help. She dashed out if the cave with her decision.

She grabbed her son's hand and hastily trudged through the snow, "C'mon, we need to get the sled."

They made it back to the cabin in good time given the depth of the snow they powered through. She took Tasc inside and hid him in a closet and told him to be very quiet and not to come out until she got back. She was pretty sure the man in the cave was the only one but it wasn't worth losing her son so soon after losing her husband, who had been human. She grabbed the thermal blanket out of her emergency kit and ran outside to the shed. The fuel tank on the snowmobile was full and the engine cranked easily on the first try. She straddled the big machine and drove it out from under the roof. The towing sled was propped up against the wall from her last outing to town and she easily hitched it to the back of the sled before heading into the forest.

The trip to the shuttle wreckage was considerably shorter with the powered sled, and she expertly backed the trailer as far as she could into the cave before throwing on the parking brake.

The man was in the exact same position she had left him but was still alive according to the weak pulse still thumping along under her fingers. She looped her arms under his shoulders and dragged him the half-meter to trailer at the cave's entrance. The man groaned at the pull of hidden wounds.

"Yeah, this isn't easy for me either," she puffed from heaving the dead weight.

Her movements weren't graceful but she managed to get the human onto the sled. She crossed his arms over his stomach and covered him with the metallic thermal blanket. With the man protected against the cold she hopped onto the snowmobile and threw it into gear. The snowmobile lurched upward and struggled with the weight behind it before the treads gained traction on the snow and propelled the machine and its occupants away from the cave.

She looked back several times going at the snail's pace she refused to go faster than out of fear of losing her cargo. Despite instructions, she saw her son's face briefly in the window before the curtains fluttered shut. She would deal with him later. Just like at the cave she backed the trailer up to her door so there wasn't far to travel with the heavy man.

"Tasc, I told you to stay hidden," she scolded as the door opened for her.

The boy reddened but moved out of the doorway. She unlatched the sled and spun it around before grabbing the man under his arms. It was tough work but she managed to pull him into the house and in front of her fireplace. Without being asked, Tasc stoked the simmering embers and added a few big logs and in no time a roaring fire was warming the living room. The two of them had to stop and take off their extra layers at the sudden oppressive heat.

She finally got a good look at the man on her floor with the fire burning orange against his short blonde hair. The human would've been especially handsome if it weren't for the gash over his right ear covering the side of his face and neck in sticky blood.

"Bring me that kit," she pointed to the case on the table next to the biobed in her living room.

The boy looked at her unsure of her commands.

"It's okay, your father wouldn't mind us using his things to help someone. He was a doctor before he got sick."

The kit was in her hands in seconds. She ruffled her son's hair before ripping the kit open. Luckily the battery was still fully charged and the tricorder sprang to life immediately. The poor human on her floor was incredibly sick. In addition to the hypothermia the man's body was littered with lacerations and broken bones, most of them on the right side of his body.

"Aye yay yai, mister," she shook her head as the device kept pinging alerts to newly discovered injuries.

She looked at the medical equipment left over from her husband's final days. His extended palliative care meant that she probably had everything they would need to weather out the blizzard until she could get this man to the Fleet infirmary at the outpost.

"Well, first things first, we need to get you out of that wet flight suit," she spoke to the unconscious man on her floor. She turned to her son, "Can you take his boots off for me?"

The boy got straight to his task while she pulled the long zipper on the front of the suit. When she finished with the zipper she realized they'd never shimmy the thing off the man. Luckily the fabric cut easily enough with a pair of scissors she nabbed from her sewing basket. The same went for the black pants and gold shirt. It wasn't until she was cutting down the sleeve that she paused to look at what she was doing. Based on the two thick and one slim band of silver circling the end of the sleeve, this man was a captain. She shook her head clear and finished divesting the captain of his remaining clothes before wrapping him up in several thick blankets her son brought from a nearby closet.

"Okay, Captain, let's work on getting you more comfortable. You're not breathing so well are you?" she listened to the wheeze that constituted as the man's attempt at breathing.

She looked over at the biobed set up against the wall of the cabin under the picture window. That's where she really wanted the man, but it was going to be a struggle to get him up there. Another wheeze escaped the man and that sealed her decision. It would do more harm to have him on the cold floor. She grabbed the end of the blanket the captain was situated on and heaved it towards the biobed. Her son joined in and they managed to drag the heavy load closer to the biobed. Next came the tricky part where she reached under the man's shoulders and pulled him upright. It certainly wasn't pretty but she managed to angle the man to fall on the bed as she lost control of the dead weight and he tumbled backwards. Once his bulk was hanging off the bed it was easy to pull his legs onto the bed and get him situated properly under the blankets again.

"Goodness, I need a breather now," she huffed from the exertion.

Her rest didn't last long as she donned a pair of gloves before sealing an oxygen mask over the man's nose and mouth and connecting it to the O2 concentrator next to the biobed. The biobed itself was fairly simple compared to the ones she dealt with at the colony's hospital but it did a good job of providing the basic information about the human's vital signs. Immediately the captain's oxygen saturation started climbing with the additional help but the small display screen on the side alerted her to that his temperature had climbed since she first checked it.

It was still too low for her liking so she popped the inner membrane of a chemical heat pack and wrapped it in a towel. A gentle heat was seeping through the fabric so she quickly lifted the blankets and put the bundle on top of his stomach before righting the blankets.

The dim cabin lighting wasn't enough for her to see well but her son dutifully held a flashlight so she could start an IV. She felt along his arm but his veins were in sorry shape. It only took her three sticks to get a line going which was less than what she was anticipating.

"Sorry, Captain, I don't have one of those fancy machines that does it automatically," she secured the line with a few strips of tape.

With the line going she quickly set up fluids and one of the leftover antibiotics she found.

"I really hope you're not allergic to this but you're already skirting the edge of pneumonia there and that could get very ugly. This storm is supposed to last a while," she connected the tubing to the antibiotics.

Once the human's immediate needs were seen to she started working on the other injuries. Whatever happened to his head didn't cause any apparent brain damage as she watched his pupils contract when she flashed them with her flashlight. The blood from the gash was already dried and hadn't restarted from all of the shuffling she had done to the man. She cleaned up the cut and spritzed it with an antiseptic solution to hold it over until she could seal it. The captain's dislocated right shoulder was easily reduced with only a groan of complaint at the sharp pain. She bound the arm to his chest and moved on to the nasty looking gash on his flank; it was jagged and still oozing. This must've been the source of the human blood on the shuttle's seats. There was nothing she could do about his broken ribs or leg other than immobilizing the limb and wait to heal the breaks with an osteogenic stimulator when she could get him to the infirmary.

She shoved a towel under his side and started flushing out the deep and inflamed wound with sterile saline, grimacing as bits of clotted blood and debris spilled out with the pink liquid.

"Honey, you don't have to watch," she realized her son was still standing next to her aiming a flashlight at the area she was working on.

The small boy shook his head and continued to hold the light for her.

She flushed out as much as she could before diving into the wound with sterilized forceps to pull out the stubborn bits. The gash looked as clean as it was going to get so she doused it one last time with the saline before packing it with sterile gauze. She couldn't close it and risk sealing in any infection. Now that the man's major hurts were seen to, she went back up to his head and closed the gash above his ear the small dermal regenerator from the kit.

Another check of the man's temperature and it was climbing up closer to normal.

"Okay, one last thing and I'll leave you alone for a while, Captain," she put on a clean pair of gloves. She turned to the boy, "You want to go make us some hot cocoa?"

The boy nodded eagerly and dashed to the kitchen area. She checked to make sure the kid was occupied before ripping open a package of sterile tubing.

"Alright, Captain, I'll be quick," she pushed the blankets around his groin to the side.

The catheter was placed and the blankets rearranged by the time a steaming mug of hot chocolate was waved under her nose. She peeled her gloves off and toasted to her son's mug.

"Best cocoa ever," she took a long gulp of the steaming liquid.

The boy was happily slurping his own. She walked over to the holovision set and turned it on to the local news signal. The meteorologist was talking about projected snowfalls over the next few hours. The weather was followed by a story on the Federation symposium that was ongoing in the city. It was easy to assume that the captain had been there or was going to the conference. She hoped that someone had noticed that he and his shuttle crew were missing from wherever they were supposed to be. There was nothing else worth listening to so she turned the set off and checked on her charge.

The captain's temperature was coming back up and there was a less sickly pallor to his face. The few milliliters of urine that had collected seemed to be free of blood and the IVs were still infusing without any issue. With the man as taken care of as he could be for the moment she went over the mess still on the floor in front of the fireplace. His clothes were unsalvageable thanks to her scissors but she placed the boots and socks off to the side to dry by the fire. A small silver gadget fell out of the pocket of the black pants when she picked them up. She'd seen enough Starfleet communicators in the city to know one when she saw one. She flipped it open but there was no one answering on the other end even with changing the frequency.

She tossed the device on an armchair and went back to collecting the man's ruined clothing, "Of course it's not working, when would things ever be easy?"

The biobed chirped to prove her point. She set the clothes down in a bag for the man to take back with him and went over to check on him. The captain's temperature was still climbing. His wheezing sounded worse but she checked his other injuries first just to be sure. The gauze packed into the wound in his side was still white and dry. She upped the concentration of O2 being delivered to him and inclined the head of the biobed a few degrees before scanning his chest with the tricorder. The congestion was getting worse.

"Okay, I'll give you something else. We need to take care of this or it's going to be a long night for the both of us."

She rummaged through the leftover medical supplies to find the case of the second antibiotic she had. It turned out her husband was allergic to it but it was still in date. She popped the cartridge into the hypospray and pulled the blankets off the man's side. He was certainly heavy but she managed to roll him onto his mostly uninjured side.

"This might sting a bit, I don't have this in IV form," she injected the medication into the large muscle.

There was a soft grunt from the man. She rolled him over more quickly than she should have and was greeted with two slivers of electric blue.

"Hey there. My name is Azani. I found you in a shuttle crash but you're safe. Do you understand?"

The human continued to stare at her with dulled eyes.

Azani grabbed his left hand, "Captain, if you understand me I need for you to squeeze my hand. Can you squeeze my hand? Captain?"

Slowly his digits curled around hers.

"That's good. You're safe. I'm a nurse at the colony hospital. Can you speak?"

The man's Adam's apple bobbed up and down in a few attempts to speak.

"Water?"

There was a barely perceptible nod. She dashed to the kitchen and filled a cup halfway with water and brought it back. The oxygen mask was pulled off with a slight pop as the seal was broken.

"I don't have straws so sip slowly," she lifted his head up and held the cup to his lips.

She let the man have a few sips of water before pulling the cup away and setting his head back on the pillow.

"That's all for now. I don't want you to get sick on me."

"ones?" he wheezed.

"What?"

"B'nes."

"Bones?"

The man nodded.

"Do your bones hurt? You broke some ribs and your right leg. I can't heal them with what I have here but I can give you something for the pain."

The man closed his eyes. She shook his good shoulder.

"Hey, stay with me, Captain. What's your name?"

"Jim."

"Hey there, Jim. Is there a way to contact your crew?"

"B'nes."

She was confused; "I'll give you something for the pain in a minute. Are you from the outpost?"

Jim shook his head. His sats were dropping; she needed to end the conversation quickly.

"A ship?"

Jim nodded.

"Which one?"

"Prize."

"The _Prize_?" that was an odd name for a Federation starship. "Okay, I'll let them know you're here."

The biobed beeped at the falling O2 sats.

"Okay, Jim, I'm going to put this back on you. You're very sick right now," she sealed the mask on his face.

He tried to raise his unbound hand to it but she caught it and set it down on his stomach.

"It's okay, I'll take good care of you. I'll get you something for the pain."

She loaded up the hypospray and delivered enough pain meds to his carotid to keep him comfortable, "Better?"

Jim nodded slightly before his eyes fluttered shut. She looked at the snow falling outside the picture window; the snowdrifts were steadily climbing.

"Alright mister, time for dinner," she turned around to find her son.

The boy was at the kitchen table with the communicator in several pieces and a set of mini-tools in his hands.

"What are you doing?"

He looked up at her and smiled before reassembling the pieces. She turned it on and the display screen sprang to life.

"Nice going," she ruffled the boy's hair.

" _...Captain Kirk do you copy?"_ the device squawked.

"Enterprise _to Captain Kirk._ "

She pressed the talk button, "Hello?"

" _Who is this?"_

"Are you looking for Jim?"

" _This is the Federation starship_ USS Enterprise _please identify yourself."_

"My name is Azani. I'm a nurse at the colony hospital. Who are you? Are you from Jim's ship?"

" _This is Lieutenant Uhura, how did you find this communicator?"_

"I found your Captain Jim in a shuttle wreck. The others were dead."

" _What is Captain Kirk's status?"_

"I pulled him out and brought him home with me."

" _Is Captain Kirk alive?"_

"Yes."

" _What is his condition?"_

"He's uh, he's banged up but he's probably developing pneumonia. I found him in a cave in the snow."

" _Can you confirm that he needs medical attention?"_

"He does but he's getting it. I'm a nurse at the colony hospital."

" _We're tracing the signal now to your location."_

The line went quiet for a few minutes. With the blizzard outside getting their captain out of here was going to be tricky. They didn't use transporters on the colony for a reason; their atmosphere had a high concentration of ionic interference in it.

"Enterprise _to Azani, do you copy?"_

"Still here."

" _We are unable to get a transporter lock. We're looking into sending someone down by shuttle."_

"There's a really bad blizzard right now, I live on the side of the mountain, the closest place to land is a few kilometers from here in town."

" _Stand by."_

She rolled her eyes, unless someone was going to parachute in during the peak of the blizzard, which was a terrible plan; no one was getting in or out until the storm let up.

"Enterprise _to Azani."_

"Yep still here."

" _I'm transferring the call to the CMO."_

"Okay, copy that."

" _Hello? Azani?"_ a gruff voice with an intense drawl spoke.

"Yes."

" _I'm Doctor Leonard McCoy the Chief Medical Officer, what is the Captain's condition? They said you were a nurse."_

She gave the doctor the run down on her patient just like she would do at the hospital. He asked the correct questions and she gave the appropriate answers. Clearly the man on the other end of the signal was concerned about her charge. The doctor rattled off the captain's allergies but she didn't have the meds anyways, which she relayed to the doctor.

" _Has he been conscious?"_

"He was for a few minutes, enough to drink a little bit of water and tell me his bones were hurting."

" _He said his bones were hurting?"_

"He kept repeating 'bones' at me."

The line went quiet.

"Hello?"

" _I'm still here. They're telling me that there's not much we can do to get down there until the storm passes and Jim is in good hands."_

"I'll take that as a compliment."

" _The ship will check in hourly with you but if you need anything or if Jim's condition changes comm us."_

"Yes, Doctor McCoy."

" _I'll be down there as soon as we can get a shuttle down."_

"I will take care of him, Doctor McCoy."

" _Alright,_ Enterprise _out."_

Azani closed the communicator and tossed it on the table. Clearly the captain's crew cared deeply for him, especially the doctor.

"Where were we? Right, dinner time," she walked over to the food processor.

The day had been too hectic to think about making something for them to eat from scratch and the things she got from the market would keep in stasis. She replicated two steaming bowls of her husband's stew recipe. It was just what they needed, and they both tucked into their bowls quickly after she set them down. They ate every single bite.

"That was good wasn't it?" she handed the boy her last piece of bread to sop up the remnants in his bowl.

The kid nodded and put their bowls in the sink.

"Why thank you kind sir, you must want something don't you?" Azani said with a smirk as she cleaned up their water glasses.

One look and she knew, "Alright, if you wash up now you can read for an hour tonight."

The boy dashed away from the kitchen leaving a trail of clothes to the bathroom door that hissed shut. She gathered the clothes and tossed them in the over-full refresher unit. Her husband was always the one that nagged her about the laundry.

It was the small things that made his loss the worst, not the big glaring ones like everyone expected. It was the missing water glasses, the lack of movement in the bookmark in the real paper book on table, and the half of the pot of non-replicated coffee that would be leftover after breakfast. Azani knew her violet tinged eyes were misting up and a quick shake of her head cleared the maudlin thoughts.

The chirping from the captain's communicator drew her back to the living room.

"A Federation hour right on the dot there," she muttered to herself.

"Enterprise _to Azani, do you read?_ "

"I'm here."

" _What is Captain Kirk's status?"_

"No status change, _Enterprise_."

" _Doctor McCoy would like for you to tell us his biostats during the check-ins for his records."_

Azani rolled her eyes and walked over to the sleeping man.

"Alrighty - pulse 110, resps at 21 per standard minute and shallow, O-2 is 94% on concentrate, temp at 38.9 degrees-C, and his pressure is 100 over 60," she read off the display screen.

" _Please confirm: pulse 110, respirations 21 and shallow, sats 94 on concentrate, temperature is 38.9 Celsius, and 100/60?"_

"Confirmed," everything was exactly as she said it.

" _Has Captain Kirk been conscious?"_

"Negative."

" _Understood. Next comm check in one hour, mark._ Enterprise _out."_

Azani looked down at her charge, "I bet you were off that ship to get away from all of them."

There was no reply, just the hum of the oxygen concentrator and the man's wheeze. While she was there she did replenish the IV bags that were almost empty and remove the chemical heat pack that had lost all of its extra heat. She pulled all but one of the blankets off the fevered man.

Jim visibly shivered.

"Hey now, your temperature is a little higher than I want," Azani soothed with a cool hand to his forehead.

She dug through the paraphernalia around the biobed but couldn't find the medication she was looking for. If the captain's fever got any higher they would be in trouble without any antipyretics on hand. The only thing she could do for him now was to try and manage it with cool compresses and tepid baths.

Her son bounded into the living room with a hefty book in his hands. He plopped down in the armchair next to the fire and dove straight into the story. She wasn't sure which book he had, reading at night before bed had strictly been a father and son activity and she had not been invited to it. Her husband managed to read for a little bit each day with him up until the last week when the physical decline became too sharp and he had spent his final days in a drugged oblivion.

With Tasc preoccupied she filled a bowl with lukewarm water and started sponging down the fevered skin with a wetted cloth.

"B'nes," the breathy mumble was barely audible.

Azani frowned.

"Jim?"

Jim turned his head to her voice but didn't open his eyes.

"Jim are you in pain still?"

"Bnz."

"I can't give you anything else for the pain right now, Jim. I'll give you more in another hour."

"Where's 'ones?"

Azani was confused. Was 'bones' a person or was his leg or ribs hurting? His fever wasn't high enough for any mental alterations.

"Jim, I need to you to open your eyes," she set the wet cloth down and grabbed his left hand. "Jim?"

The captain's eyes opened a fraction of a millimeter.

"Hey, I'm over here."

Blue eyes tracked over to where the voice was coming from.

"Jim, what hurts?"

His eyes locked on her violet ones but scanned around; he was looking for someone.

"Is 'bones' a person?"

"M'y," he wheezed.

"What?" Azani was more confused.

"Mc-Coy."

 _Aha_!

"Are you looking for Doctor McCoy?" she finally had it now.

There was a slight nod.

"He's not here right now, Jim. I talked to your ship but they can't get here with the blizzard yet. They're coming for you when they can."

Another nod.

"I spoke to Doctor McCoy, he's your CMO right?"

The fingers inside her grasp twitched ever so slightly.

"He sounded pretty cranky when he said they couldn't come get you yet."

She could've sworn she saw an eye roll after that statement.

"Yeah, I see why you left them for a little while," she giggled.

"W'rry wart."

"At least they like you enough to worry like that. Enough chit chat, you need to rest mister."

A weak cough interrupted the attempted closing of the brilliant blue eyes. Azani raised the head of the biobed up to 45 degrees to help the man breathe easier.

"Jim?"

"Hm?"

"I know it hurts to cough with those ribs, but we need to keep your lungs in decent shape until your ship gets here."

She grabbed a small pillow off her sofa and pressed it to the captain's chest, using his undamaged arm to hold on to it.

"Use this when you have to cough, it'll help some."

There was an unimpressed nod.

"Fine then, if you get sicker you can deal with your Doctor McCoy."

Her instructions were followed with the next cough that was slightly more forceful. She didn't need the tricorder to know that the congestion in Jim's lungs was not improving.

"That's what I thought. Sleep, it's the best thing for you right now," she patted his arm encouragingly and plopped down tiredly on her sofa.

The weather service broadcast on the holovision didn't offer her any hope that there would be a respite in the storm any time soon. She listened to the sounds of the pages flipping in her son's book and the rasp-wheeze of the sick man by the window. She lost track of time and another three comm checks from the Federation ship came and went.

Her son dutifully put himself to bed with a goodnight hug, leaving her alone with the ailing captain. She checked all the infusions, administered more pain meds, and wiped down his fevered skin before pulling the armchair over to his bedside to continue her vigil. This familiar situation brought back painful memories of vigils at her husband's bedside.

Three more comm checks went by before she could no longer keep her eyes open and she found herself drifting off in the chair. She wasn't able to close her eyes for long until more strangled coughing woke her up.

"Easy, easy now," she rolled Jim onto his uninjured side and clapped her hands on his back to help loosen the stubborn phlegm. "Better?"

He nodded and she returned him to his back gently.

"Need to spit?" she asked preemptively grabbing a small bowl.

The human nodded and she released the seal on the oxygen mask before pulling it from his face. She deftly caught the green fluid in the bowl.

"Done?" she forced her face to remain neutral.

A third and final nod before the fevered blue eyes drifted shut and she resealed the mask over his nose and mouth. She stood up, grimacing at the protest her muscles were making after staying seated for too long. The snow was still coming down heavily outside the picture window behind the biobed.

While she was up she stoked the dying fire and threw another log onto the flames before cleaning out the bowl in kitchen sink. After looking at the late hour on the chronometer display, she ordered the replicator to produce a hot tea. She took the steaming mug and the freshly cleaned bowl back to her chair. This time she was reluctant to sit down again and subject her muscles to the strain. Jim was as situated as he could be so she took to pacing the living room waiting for the next comm check from his ship. Her tiredness ended that idea after only a few laps and she resigned herself back to the chair at the captain's bedside.

"I didn't think I'd be sitting her so soon after..." she spoke to the unconscious man. The chirping of the communicator cut that stroll down memory lane short, "Right on time."

"Enterprise _to Azani, do you read?_ " she flipped the device open

"Azani here."

" _What is Captain Kirk's status?"_

She startled rattling off Jim's vitals just like she had done for every other comm check when another voice broke in on the communicator.

" _McCoy here, sorry can you repeat that?"_

"Pulse 100, resps at 23 per standard minute and shallow, O-2 is 93% on concentrate, temp at 39.2 degrees-C, and his pressure is 90 over 70. Productive cough with green sputum. About 40 milliliters of urine since the last comm check. "

" _Azani, has he been conscious?"_

"Just for a little bit, Doctor McCoy. Long enough to cough, he didn't say anything."

" _Okay, do you have a sample cartridge in your tricorder?"_

"Sorry, Doctor McCoy, the one I have is pretty basic."

" _That's okay, are you still giving him IM Fletexomycin in addition to the Tetrafloxcin?"_

"Yes, though I've only got two more doses of the Fletexomycin. My husband ended up being allergic to it so it wasn't refilled."

" _Still doing compresses for the fever?"_

"Yes, Doctor McCoy."

" _I have to say that I'm not too happy with Jim's condition right now. We're watching the weather patterns closely up here and we've got a team on standby in case a window opens up and we can get a shuttle down there. At the very least we can get some more supplies down to you."_

"I will take care of your captain, Doctor McCoy."

" _I know…"_

There was an awkward pause in the conversation, almost as if the doctor on the other end wasn't willing to end the comm just yet.

"Would you like to see if I can wake him up for a minute to talk to you?"

There was a definite hesitation in the man's reply, " _Let him rest."_

She had her answer.

"Jim?" she placed the open communicator on her knee and took the Captain's left hand. "Jim can you wake up for me?"

Azani gave his hand a gentle shake.

"C'mon, Jim," she put a cool hand on his fevered brow.

That did the trick, and she was rewarded with a sigh has he turned into the comfort.

"Hey there," she greeted him when his eyes cracked open. "You with me?"

The head under her head nodded.

"I have someone that wants to talk to you?" she waved the communicator in his field of vision.

" _Jim?"_

The doctor's voice on the other end of the comm had the desired effect and the Captain grew restless. Azani quickly released the seal on the oxygen mask and pulled it off Jim's face. She held the device up to him so he could hear and talk.

"Bnz," the word was barely audible over the wheezing.

" _I'm here, Jim."_

"Sorry."

" _Don't worry about it kid. We can talk about it later when you're feeling better."_

"Crew?"

" _We're all okay up here. Uhura's shuttle made it through the storm. She and her team are fine. Your unlucky streak hit again and your shuttle took the hit."_

"My team?" moisture was building up in the corner of his fevered eyes.

" _They're dead, Jim. I'm sorry. We thought you were dead too until Azani found your comm."_

A choked sob turned into a vicious wet cough; Azani had to set down a squawking communicator to roll Jim to his side.

" _Jim can you hear me?"_

"Hang on a bit," she spoke in the direction of the device while clapping the captain's heaving back. "That's it, Jim. Use the pillow."

" _Azani, what's happening?"_ the panic in the doctor's voice was noticeable.

"Just a minute, Doctor McCoy," she threw over her shoulder.

The start of the biobed's oxygen saturation alarm did nothing to ease the fear coming out of McCoy's barrage of questions.

Azani couldn't focus between Jim's strangled coughing, McCoy's frantic voice over the comm, and the biobed pinging it's shrill warning.

"I'll comm you back," she snapped the device closed.

She held a dish steady as the ailing man expelled thick green phlegm.

"That's it, Jim."

"Bns?" Jim asked between spitting.

"We'll talk to him later," Azani rubbed her hand through Jim's short blonde locks to unstick them from his forehead.

Jim moved to roll onto his back but Azani stopped the movement with a gentle hand on his hip.

"You need your next dose of antibiotics while I've got you turned over," she resealed the oxygen mask, ending any chance of complaint.

She dialed in the correct dosage on the hypospray and pushed the blanket off the man's side.

"This is going to sting a bit," the device dumped its contents into the large muscle.

The injection didn't disappoint and Jim hissed.

"Sorry about that," she helped him roll onto his back. "The good news is only one more dose of it, the bad news is only one more dose of it."

Jim was visibly exhausted after everything.

"It would be stupid of me to ask if you're hungry wouldn't it?"

The nod she got was exactly what she had expected.

"Okay, we'll try food later the next time you're awake and I've calmed down your doctor friend."

Azani watched Jim's fevered eyes track to something behind her. There was a brief flash of panic before she looked over her shoulder to see Tasc.

"That's my son, Tasc. His father was a human," she motioned for the boy to come closer. "He saw some of the broken trees that led us to your shuttle."

Jim nodded.

"Both of you boys should be asleep," she pointedly looked at the captain who was well on his way to sleep already before turning around to unsuccessfully glare at the boy. "Did we wake you?"

Tasc didn't respond but she knew they were the cause anyways with the ruckus they had been creating.

"I'm sorry, let's get you back to bed."

The boy looked longingly at the sofa.

"No sir, you're going back to your own bed. Who knows when he'll wake up again or need something and you need your rest too."

The puppy dog look she was getting was trying to break her resolve.

"Don't even try that mister," she gently shuffled him away from the living room and back to his own bed. "Sleep tight," she tucked him in with a kiss to his forehead.

Exhausted, Azani returned to the chair next to the biobed and collapsed tiredly into its cushions. She was asleep in seconds.

The first tendrils of light from the new day filtered through her closed lids and she knew she had slept through the rest of the night, leaving her charge alone and his ship's hails unanswered.

"Shit," Azani cursed to no one as she bolted awake.

Her eyes scanned the captain and saw that his IV bags were empty.

"I'm so sorry, Jim," she quickly confirmed that she hadn't lost the IV site and reprimed the lines with fresh saline and antibiotics.

The man's fever was still high for a human but luckily it hadn't climbed any higher during her impromptu nap. She finished a few more small tasks before delivering her last dose of the second antibiotic she had.

"Hey there," she greeted the man's open eyes when she rolled him back over after the injection. "That's the last of those so it won't keep waking you up."

Jim only rolled his eyes.

"Well your CMO is going to be mad at the both of us now. I fell asleep and missed the last couple of comm checks," she glanced over at the chronometer.

"W'rry wart."

"Yeah yeah, you sit tight while I go get coffee started. There's no use getting a lecture from your ship under caffeinated," she patted his good arm before heading to the kitchen.

Taking a cup of coffee with her, Azani peaked in her son's room to find him still sleeping before hastily getting ready for the day in the bathroom. As soon as she reclaimed her seat at Jim's side the comm started chirping.

"Enterprise _to Azani, do you read?_ " she flipped the device open.

"Azani here."

" _What's your status? Multiple comm checks have been missed. What is Captain Kirk's status?"_

"I know I'm okay here. I fell asleep for a couple of hours. My species requires it just like humans. As for the captain - pulse 90, resps at 25 and shallow, O-2 is 92% on concentrate, temp at 39.6 degrees-C, and his pressure is 100 over 70. Is Doctor McCoy available?"

" _Pulse 90, resps at 25 and shallow, O-2 is 92% on concentrate, temp at 39.6 degrees-C, and his pressure is 100 over 70?"_

"Confirmed."

" _Doctor McCoy is unavailable at the moment. Has Captain Kirk been conscious?"_

"Negative."

" _Understood. Next comm check in one hour, mark._ Enterprise _out."_

"Sheesh they aren't a very chatty bunch," Azani muttered to herself closing the device and tossing it on the bedside table. "Okay then, I know a captain who's ready for breakfast?"

Jim, who remained awake, looked at her disinterested.

"Don't worry, Jim, we're only trying broth. You need to eat; this fever is taking quite a toll on you and I don't have what it takes to give you IV nutrition."

Azani didn't wait for Jim's answer and headed to the replicator in the kitchen. She had the broth replicated into a mug to make it easier to handle. After grabbing a spoon she returned to Jim's side and propped herself on the edge of the biobed.

"Okay, here goes," she released the seal on the oxygen mask.

She dunked the spoon in the liquid and brought half a spoonful up to the captain's mouth. Jim just stared at it.

"I think I've gone through too much effort to poison you now," Azani teased.

Jim snorted, at least she thinks he snorted, and parted his lips at the awaiting spoon. He managed to take a few spoonfuls before signaling that he was done.

"Feeling nauseous or anything? I want this to stay down if we can help it."

Jim shook his head.

"Okay, good. This was a good start. Once we know you do okay with this for a little while we'll try some more," she resealed the oxygen mask back to his face.

"Th'k 'u."

"You're welcome, Jim," Azani patted his hand before depositing the mug in the sink to deal with later.

The captain had dozed off by the time she returned. Another Federation hour had come, bringing another comm check from the man's ship. Though she was slightly proud she got to report that he had eaten this time. She was cleaning up from the night's vigil when Tasc tugged on her sleeve, ready for his own breakfast. Since dinner had been from the replicator she prepared a quick breakfast for the both of them from the groceries she had on hand.

They were halfway finished when she heard the creak of the front porch boards yielding to a heavy load. Her ears pricked and her six-chambered heart quickened.

"Go to my room and hide under the bed now," she ordered her son sharply. "Take the Captain's communicator, call for help if something happens."

She gave Tasc a gentle shove and grabbed a poker from the fireside, taking a defensive stance between the door and the occupants in the house.

The knock was unexpected. She didn't budge and the knock came again.

"Azani? My name is Doctor Leonard McCoy; I'm the Chief Medical Officer on Captain Kirk's ship. We've spoken a few times on his communicator."

She moved to a side window to peek through the opening in the curtains. There were two bundled up figures at her doorstep.

"It's colder than a witch's tit out here ma'am if you could let us in now. I'm here with Ensign Chekov."

She was hesitant to open the door but no one else would've known that she had spoken to a McCoy on Jim's ship. Carefully she opened the door with the poker hidden and ready to strike.

"Jesus H. Christ it's freezing out here. Let us in or kill us now before we freeze solid."

Azani opened the door the rest of the way and the two puffy figures raced inside to the warmth. It took several minutes for the pair to divest themselves of their several bags and enough layers of winter gear before she could distinguish any physical features. The dark haired one was broad and solid while the curly haired one was smaller and surprisingly young.

"I'm McCoy," the dark haired one offered out a hand fresh out of his insulated gloves.

"Azani," she nearly gasped at the iciness of the man's handshake.

"Ensign Pavel Andreievich Chekov," the curly haired kid said with some kind of different accent while offering up his hand.

"Nice to meet you too," Azani shook his hand.

McCoy finished taking off all of his winter gear but the jacket liner, "Sorry to barge in on you unannounced like this but we couldn't get a hold of you after the Captain's...episode and there was a brief opening in the storm. We landed in the town and hiked in."

"You hiked up this mountain during a blizzard?" Azani was equally impressed and shocked by their effort.

"It waz just like being in Russia," Chekov beamed.

"Okay…" she was confused at the ensign's enthusiasm.

McCoy rolled his eyes at the young ensign's enthusiasm, "Well we brought more supplies to weather out the storm until we can get Jim back to the shuttle."

Azani looked down at the two duffel bags and two backpacks that had been unceremoniously dumped onto her floor.

"Did you bring your whole sickbay?" she watched McCoy riffle through the bags searching for something.

"I wish," McCoy straightened up with a sleek Starfleet tricorder in his hand.

The doctor didn't waste any time in seeing to his patient.

"Jim?" she heard the doctor speak softly.

The captain kept wheezing without any hint that he'd heard his shipmate.

"Jim?" McCoy repeated with a cool hand to the side of Jim's face.

Azani couldn't see his eyes open but she did see the blanket over his feet move ever so slightly.

"I'm here, Jim."

The movement under the blanket increased and she saw Jim's unbound arm lift up to pull the mask off his face. There were words spoken between the two of them but she couldn't hear what they were. The gentle kiss McCoy gave Jim before resealing the mask made her feel like she was intruding on a moment she wasn't supposed to witness. Their private reunion made it a good time to go retrieve Tasc and get him started on getting ready for the day.

"So what do you do on the ship?" Azani asked Chekov after returning to see the ensign standing awkwardly by the fire.

"I am the nawigator," he answered.

"And I take it you're from Russia?"

"Hawe you been before?" the young man's eyes were big and hopeful.

"No, I've never left the planet but my late husband was human. I think he spent a school break in Moscow once when he was a boy."

Azani continued her small talk with Chekov while watching McCoy scan Jim out of the corner of her eye. Tasc returned to the living room and stared at the new people in his house.

"This is my son Tasc," she motioned for him to come to her. "These people are from Jim's ship. They're going to take him back when the blizzard lets up," she spoke to the boy.

Chekov crouched to the boy's level, "I'm Pavel."

Tasc held up a hand to shake without saying a word. Chekov shook it eagerly.

"He hasn't spoken since his father, my husband, passed three months ago."

Their conversation was interrupted by a coughing fit from the captain.

"Want to hang out with me while your mom and Doctor McCoy work?" Chekov asked the boy.

Azani saw Tasc nod and quickly crossed the room to the biobed. McCoy was busy loading up a hypospray.

"I don't think he likes those."

"No he doesn't, and never has as long as I've known him," the doctor delivered the medicine to Jim's carotid with more force than Azani thought was necessary.

She didn't miss Jim's wince either.

"Give it a minute to work, Jim," McCoy was scowling at the vitals display on his tricorder.

"Need to spit?" Azani asked grabbing the small bowl on the bedside table.

Jim nodded and McCoy released the seal on the mask while she held the bowl ready.

"You certainly don't half ass anything," McCoy watched the thick green phlegm get expelled.

McCoy pulled a sample probe out of his tricorder and stuck it into the fluid inside the bowl.

"Don't worry, kid, I brought the good stuff that'll knock this shit right out."

McCoy left to search through their paraphernalia before returning with an IV bag and a small vial, "Let's use this instead of the Tetrafloxcin."

"Sure thing," Azani took the bag and swapped it out with the antibiotics she had been giving Jim.

McCoy screwed the small vial into the front of the mask before sealing it over his captain's nose and mouth, "That is more targeted to the pneumococcal strain he has and this should help his breathing. I brought an osteogenic stimulator and we can let it work while we do something about that laceration on his side."

"Okay."

"I didn't realize you had quite the setup here," McCoy continued to talk while rummaging through the bags.

"My husband had Iverson's. There was nothing anyone could do and he wanted to be home for the end."

McCoy paused, "I'm sorry. Iverson's can be particularly brutal."

"It was. He was in a lot of pain at the very end."

"There it is," McCoy stood up with the desired device in his hands. "Can you lift his leg while I slide the bottom out?" he pulled the contraption in half.

"Yep."

"Jim?" McCoy waited for the man to look at him through bleary eyes. "We need to move your leg but we'll be quick."

Azani pulled the blanket off his right leg. She carefully pulled the makeshift splints off and set her hands underneath Jim's calf. The leg in her hand was tense and searing with fever; no doubt her hands felt like ice to the poor man.

"Sorry my hands are cold," she could tell Jim was gritting his teeth under the mask.

"I'm ready," McCoy held the bottom piece next to her hands.

"Countdown or surprise?" she whispered to the doctor.

"Surprise," he glanced up at Jim quickly.

She saw his eyes come back to the task at hand and quickly lifted the broken leg off the biobed's surface. McCoy set the bottom half to the stimulator down and she brought the leg down onto the bottom plate, trying not to jostle the broken bones too much. Once down, McCoy set the top piece on top of Jim's leg and connected it to the bottom piece so that the stimulator wrapped around the break. Jim let out a shaky breath as soon as the device was powered up and they pulled their hands back.

"All done, Jim," McCoy pulled the blanket back over the exposed limb. "I'll get you something for the pain as soon as we finish with your side. It should be time for more by then."

Azani glanced back to the kitchen table to find her son and the ensign pawing through a box of random electrical parts. When she turned back around she saw McCoy grasping Jim's bound hand while gently probing the deep gash he had exposed with his other hand.

"We should be able to close this with all the antibiotics he's had and it doesn't look inflamed. It's pretty deep so I'll autosuture the deeper layers and then close the epidermis with the regen."

"Sounds like a plan."

McCoy left to rummage through the bags and returned carrying several small kits.

"Jim, Azani and I are gonna turn you to your side."

Azani moved to the other side of McCoy, no doubt he would want to be by Jim's head. They deftly got the captain positioned with no interruption of the osteogenic stimulator as she held it steady during the maneuver.

"I'm gonna give ya local here," McCoy said after setting up the portable sterile field generator and snapping on a pair of gloves.

There was a muffled response in between Jim's wheezes.

"Yeah it's with a real syringe and needle," McCoy smirked delivering the medication he'd drawn up to the areas around the wound.

Azani was confused, there was no way that was anything close to what Jim had said.

"Only the biggest needles for you, kid," McCoy added.

Clearly there was an inside joke between the two of them that she wasn't in on.

"At least you get to enjoy the view outside while I'm back here staring at your ass."

Azani wasn't sure if Jim was still awake and listening but McCoy continued his bantering while cleaning out the chasm of tissues. At some point while McCoy had been working to close the deeper layers she took to running her hands through the man's short blonde locks. Sizzling and puffs of smoke coming from the kitchen table grabbed her attention.

"What are you guys doing over there?"

Chekov and Tasc, who had donned dark goggles, looked up with sheepish grins.

"Do not worry, ma'am," the ensign waved whatever smoldering tool that was in his hand.

"Be careful or that little Russian is going to corrupt your son," McCoy said without turning from Jim's side.

"Really?"

"He's one of the smartest people on the ship; I'm sure they've got things mostly under control over there. Him and our chief engineer like to have contraption building contests. The last one was an auto-loading marshmallow shooter."

"Who won that one?"

McCoy smirked, "Chekov."

"And you do this, on a Starfleet ship?"

"Eh, Jim's a really good captain. Being the flagship, we always get the intense missions and they help everyone de-stress. I'd never tell them I approve out loud, but no one's gotten anything more than a bruised ego and what Starfleet doesn't know won't hurt them."

"Sounds interesting."

"Never a dull moment on that ship that's for sure. Can you get a bandage over this?"

The doctor's hands had been precise and steady, leaving nothing more than a thin line of fresh pink skin traveling down the captain's side.

"What's your specialty?" Azani asked, placing a long film bandage over the new skin.

"Trauma surgery," McCoy cleaned up his discarded instruments.

Her ears perked up, "My husband was an orthopedic surgeon before he got sick."

"At the outpost?" McCoy pulled the blanket over his handiwork.

"Yeah, he was Starfleet."

"Let's get him turned back over, can you take his legs again?"

If Jim had been dozing during McCoy's treatment, then he was certainly awake now with all of the jostling to his broken leg and ribs. The poor man looked about as good as he probably felt.

McCoy placed a comforting hand over Jim's bound one, "We're done for a while, I'll give you something for the pain now and you can rest."

Azani noticed that despite the pain and fatigue there was a sense of complete trust in Jim's vividly blue eyes. However, despite the sense of trust she couldn't help but notice Jim shifting slightly further away when McCoy held up the hypospray to load.

"I think Jim might want that through his IV," she saw a silent but desperate plea from the poor man's eyes.

"Oh I'm sure he does," he loaded his weapon.

The man struck with the speed and ferociousness of a snake. She mouthed a quite 'sorry' from behind the doctor.

"Don't worry, I only do it to him."

The medicine worked its way to the captain's brain quickly and his eyes fluttered shut with relief.

"I've been trying to train him to stop doing stupid shit that ends up with him getting hurt."

"Does it work?"

"It hasn't in the last eight and a half years, but I'm still hopeful it'll work one day."

Azani was floored, "You guys are nuts."

"Starfleet's finest, ma'am," the doctor said with a smirk.

She really didn't want to know what kind of shenanigans they got involved with.

"Do you drink coffee, Doctor McCoy? I know it's a human-"

"Oh absolutely. I had to get up at zero dark thirty to come rescue this idiot and I didn't get to stop by the mess and get a cup before we left," the man was already scanning the kitchen looking for the coffee pot.

McCoy had zeroed in on the carafe when the communicator in his jacket pocket started chirping, "Enterprise _to McCoy_ " he flipped the device open.

Azani left him to deal with his ship while she went to the kitchen and poured coffee for the adults. Chekov and Tasc didn't look up when she set down coffee and hot cocoa in front of them. McCoy had just finished talking when she set the steaming mug down.

"You're my new best friend," he said after a long gulp.

She dragged another chair over, letting McCoy take the one already situated at his captain's side. Said captain was still asleep and wheezing but that didn't stop the doctor from pulling the blanket up to his collarbone and smoothing the fabric.

"The good news is that we shouldn't be in your hair much longer. The xenoclimatology department thinks there should be a break in the storm late afternoon."

Having spent many winters on the mountain she was skeptical of their assessments but kept any doubt to herself. A pop came from the kitchen table but her son quickly waved her off before she could worry and investigate.

"Your son doesn't talk very much," McCoy said over the rim of his coffee cup.

Azani realized he must've missed her explanation to the navigator and wasn't keen on repeating her small family's struggle.

"He hasn't said a word since my husband died. They were very close," she said after a long silence.

McCoy nodded, "I understand. I was the closest to my father and it damn near ripped my heart out when he died. In a cruel twist of fate, some scientist at the outer rim discovered a cure for what killed him two months after..."

"You seemed to have turned out okay," Azani sipped her own coffee trying to avoid the man's eyes.

"Yeah, it takes time. Your kid will talk when he's ready."

Azani wanted to roll her eyes at the advice; it wasn't like it was anything that her mother and friends hadn't already told her a hundred times.

"What about Jim's father?" she tried to change the subject.

McCoy's fingers tightened on the mug he was holding, she must've struck an equally sensitive topic.

"You don't know who he is?" the doctor held the mug in his lap.

"Um no?" she looked at the sick man on her husband's biobed.

"Have you heard of the _USS Kelvin_?"

Azani shook her head.

McCoy sucked in a breath, "His father and mom, who was pregnant with Jim at the time, were on that ship when it was attacked by a rogue Romulan ship. The captain was killed and George, Jim's dad, became the new captain. They ended up having to evacuate the ship and he stayed behind to make sure the escaping shuttles were safe. His mom ended up going into preterm labor and Jim was born inside one of the escaping shuttles. He's the 'Kelvin Baby' if you ever come across it. Jim never knew his father, just the legacy he left behind and it wasn't easy living under that man's shadow."

She really didn't know what she was supposed to say after all of that unexpected anguish, "I'm sorry he had to go through that."

"Don't be, he's a good man and a good captain because of what he went through," McCoy gave a small toast to the wheezing man before finishing his coffee.

"How long?" she asked softly.

"About four years."

That appeared to be all McCoy was going to offer on that subject.

"Where are you from?" she started what would turn into several more hours of small talk that would only be punctuated by caring for Jim's needs, answering comms from the _Enterprise_ , or stopping to eat a lunch she replicated for all of them.

It was growing dark when they realized the blizzard had never abated and their window to leave had never opened.

"I guess we'll try again tomorrow," McCoy stood at the window watching the snowdrifts continue to grow.

"These blizzards only last for a couple of days so it should be on its way out tonight," she tidied up the woodpile at the ever-burning fireplace.

They had to eat dinner in the living room as to not disturb the workshop that had expanded all over her kitchen table and its immediate surroundings. She still had no idea what they were working on and they weren't offering any clues. McCoy took a mug of broth over to Jim while she cleaned up in the kitchen.

The doctor perched on the side of the biobed before waking up his patient with a cool hand to a fevered cheek, "Jim? I need you to wake up for me."

Azani stopped what she was doing to watch the fabric at the end of the biobed shift from its waking occupant.

"I need you to eat," McCoy pulled off the mask with a pop of the seal breaking.

There was something about the image of the gruff doctor spoon-feeding the ailing man that she couldn't help but be drawn to. It stirred her own memories of feeding her dying husband the last few times before the constant infusion of pain meds kept him from resurfacing. The clank of a spoon rattling in the mug shook her out of her daze.

"Just so you know, you owe me for this," the doctor finished by gently wiping the captain's mouth with a soft napkin.

McCoy's hand was stilled when Jim reached up to grab hold of it.

"Later, when you're more likely to remember the conversation," McCoy patted the hand on top of his before gently placing it by Jim's side and resealing the mask. "The break in you leg should be healed enough that we can work on your ribs; that'll help you breathe a lot easier. Maybe we can get your lungs in better shape before we have to traipse through the snow."

Azani dropped the drying towel on the counter and took up a position at the doctor's side. The freshly knitted break in the captain's leg was still delicate, but the two of them managed to transfer the osteogenic stimulator from his leg to his ribs with only a few grunts of discomfort from their patient.

It was very late into the night when she realized how tired she was growing and the doctor had made no indication that he was wavering from his bedside vigil. It took quite a bit of convincing and 'looks' to get her son and the navigator to suspend their project for the night. She shuffled Tasc to his own bed and Chekov to a pallet made of his camping pad and several warm blankets on the floor.

"I've made up the sofa for you, Doctor McCoy. With all of the traveling you guys did, I can take the first watch," she fluffed a pillow on the living room sofa she'd prepared to sleeping.

"Thank you, ma'am, but I'm going to stay right here. He's going to need another breathing treatment in the next little bit here and his fever is trying to creep up again."

Azani knew a fight she wasn't going to win when she saw one, "Okay, just wake me in four Federation hours to trade."

McCoy waved his hand in acceptance and continued his vigil as she retreated to her bedroom to sleep for a few hours. Those hours turned out to be a fruitless attempt at getting any rest before she finally gave up, pulling on her robe as she made her way to the living room.

The lights had been turned down and the only illumination came from a small lamp next to the biobed. The doctor had propped his feet up on the biobed next to his patient's legs. The only sounds in the room were the continued wheezing of the man in the bed and the oxygen concentrator that worked to keep his oxygen sats up.

"I'm still awake."

Azani startled. The navigator asleep on the floor barely moved with her loud expletives.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you there," McCoy swung his feet down and turned around to face her.

"I can sit with him for a while."

"I'm still good."

"You really should get some rest too," she sat down in the second bedside chair.

McCoy stole a glance at this patient, "I'm not big on sleeping when he gets like this."

"Does it happen often?"

The doctor's scoff was epic, "It's why my hair is so gray."

Azani couldn't see any gray in the dim light.

"Poor kid, it wasn't even his fault this time but I knew he was trying to hide a cold from me before he left for the conference."

"He was sick?" Azani's eyebrow arched.

"Not majorly, but easily treated if he would've told me."

"You hypo him like a menace," she smirked.

"Yeah yeah."

A strangled cough interrupted their conversation and McCoy jumped to his feet.

"Easy, Jim," he pulled the man upright with an arm behind his shoulders.

The poor captain was bleary eyed as the mask was pulled from his face and a bowl shoved under his chin. Azani grabbed the bowl while McCoy used a free hand to clap over the different lung compartments on Jim's back. It took several minutes for the phlegm that was stuck to come out. Jim's head lolled on the doctor's shoulder after the attack had passed.

"Can you set up another breathing treatment?" McCoy continued clapping Jim's back, loosening up the fluids.

Azani screwed in a new vial into the oxygen mask and resealed it on the captain's face. McCoy eased the man back to the biobed while she pulled the blankets back up to his shoulders from where they had fallen to his waist.

"Better?" McCoy put a hand to Jim's cheek.

There was a lethargic nod; the illness was sapping all of his strength.

"Tell your lungs to start cooperating," he told the ailing man as he upped the flow of the IV antibiotic.

The rest of the night continued in a similar fashion. Jim would wake up needing to cough, they'd raise him up, catch the fluid, and lay him back down ready for the next time. His fever continued to stubbornly hold throughout the rest of the night despite their attempts at sponging him down. It was just after sunrise when his fever finally broke, leaving everyone exhausted. They decided to change the sweat soaked sheets while the other two occupants in the house were still asleep.

"I have some clothes for him. It'll make the trip out of here a little easier," McCoy shook out pajamas from one of his duffle bags.

"You lift, I shimmy?" Azani asked taking the soft cotton pants.

McCoy nodded and glanced over his shoulder, "Alright, Jim, we're gonna jostle you around a bit but you'll feel better when we finish."

Between the two of them they got the pants on him after securing the collection bag to his leg with its attached straps. They had to unbind his right arm and disconnect the IV from his left long enough to get both arms through the sleeves of the t-shirt. McCoy even took a comb out of a bag and tamed Jim's massive case of bed head.

Azani could hear stirring from her son's room and she left to get him started on getting ready for the day. By the time she was finished the navigator was up and perched on the side of the biobed talking to his captain who was trying to stay engaged in the one sided conversation while McCoy made coffee. Once Tasc joined them she made four of them breakfast. After they ate Chekov and her son picked up where they left off on their project while McCoy took a cup of broth to Jim. She took the time to get ready for the day while everyone was occupied.

"Great news," McCoy beamed when she rejoined the group.

She already knew the blizzard had stopped by looking out the window behind him.

"It looks like the weather is good enough to get back to the shuttle. We can get out of your hair and I can get Jim to my sickbay."

"That's great," Azani was more than ready to return to her routine. "I have a towing sled that we can use to get him down to the town."

"Good because his ass is heavy."

It was a few more hours before McCoy declared it time to leave and packed up his paraphernalia while the pair at the table worked furiously to finish their project. She worked outside to clear away enough of the snow that they had a walk able path to the sled. When she came back in McCoy had put a portable combat litter on her floor and was covering it with emergency blankets, he was just as anxious for them to leave as well.

"Chekov?" McCoy called over.

"One zecond!" the young ensign continued to work frantically.

McCoy rolled his eyes and turned to Azani, "Can you help me move him?"

"Sure."

"I already topped off his pain meds with all the jostling we're going to be doing," he pulled the litter closer to the biobed. "Can you take his legs?"

Azani nodded and got into position.

"Alright, kid, time to get you on the litter so we can go home," McCoy gently woke up his dozing captain with a gentle hand. "I went ahead and gave you your pain meds so it shouldn't be too bad."

Jim nodded and braced himself for the move.

Azani and McCoy grabbed their respective parts. McCoy had to watch out for the bound shoulder while she had to contend with the still fragile leg. The doctor counted down, she heaved, and Jim grunted. Getting Jim off the biobed bed went considerably easier than getting him on to it.

"Doing okay?" McCoy asked making sure all of Jim's limbs made it onto the litter.

The captain's reply was muffled but the doctor was okay with whatever he said.

"Let's get you all bundled up now," Azani unfolded more thermal blankets over him. She pulled several thick blankets off the floor and spread them out over the metallic sheets, tucking the grown man in as if he were her son.

McCoy pulled a knit hat over Jim's ears and then pulled the edges of the blankets over the top of his head, "Snug as a bug in a rug?"

Azani didn't understand the term but the captain did and gave a satisfactory reply.

"Alright, Chekov, time to head out."

The ensign and Tasc shared some quiet exchanges before the tools and components they had spread out were put back into a nearby box. McCoy had already zipped himself up in his winter gear.

"C'mon Tasc," She set out her son's winter gear before pulling on her own.

He nodded and went to work layering up. Azani went ahead and powered up the sled, letting it idle in its spot while she went back to help usher everyone out of the house. McCoy, and surprisingly Chekov, had each grabbed an end of the litter and were bringing Jim to her. The navigator must've been a lot stronger than he looked. She collected Tasc and locked the house up while the two of them situated the litter on the sled.

"He's secured?" Azani asked swinging her leg over the seat and scooting up to make room for her son who was behind her.

"All good," McCoy said double-checking some straps they'd fashioned to hold Jim and the litter to the sled.

Azani nodded and urged the sled and it's cargo slowly forward. It seemed like they inched their way down the path she followed to town while the two men walked behind the towing sled when the lane narrowed. She peeked back at Jim, who didn't appear to be in any apparent distress, but she could see little puffs of breath rising from the cocoon. When they got closer to town the navigator took the lead and let the party to the area they'd left their shuttle.

Once the shuttle was in sight Chekov dashed ahead and opened the door with a key code in a recessed panel. The lights flickered on and the inner workings of the engine began to stir. She stopped the sled and backed it up closer to the rear door.

"It'z warming up," Chekov announced coming down the back ramp he'd lowered.

She felt the weight behind her leave the seat and she found Tasc at the bottom of the ramp looking up into the shuttle's interior. Chekov waived him up to him while she helped McCoy take an end of the litter.

"Alright Jim, almost there," McCoy grunted as he heaved up his end.

The two of them managed to shuffle the heavy load up into the shuttle and secured it to several tie downs on the deck plating.

"Well, Azani, I can't thank you enough," McCoy had pulled a hand from his insulated glove and held it out to her.

It was too cold to take her mittens off, but she still shook his hand, "I'm glad I was able to help."

"I can't begin to think what would've happened to him-"

"It's okay, Doctor McCoy," Azani cut him off before he got too maudlin.

"Well, it's past time we got out of your hair. Give us a shout anytime you need anything."

"Just try to stay out of trouble, especially you, Jim," Azani poked the mass of blankets that cocooned the Captain. She motioned to Tasc to follow her down the ramp.

"Ha! That'll be the day. It's kinda hard to do with all that 'going boldly where no one has gone before' shit," McCoy was smirking.

The two of the stepped clear of the retracting ramp.

"Bye!" Tasc shouted before the door hissed shut.


End file.
